Among the many musical offerings across Colorado this summer, Central City Opera’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” is sure to stand out.

Despite the sluggish pace of the first half, the CCO’s first-ever matinee opening performance came together after intermission, delivering an artistically and emotionally satisfying conclusion to the 1973 show. Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film “Smiles of a Summer Night” and set in early-20th-century Sweden, the musical has won heaps of awards, especially for Sondheim’s tuneful, sophisticated score. When Grammy Award-winner Sylvia McNair — the star of the production in her persuasive, poignant portrayal of Desiree Armfeldt — sang “Send in the Clowns,” she drove home the work’s warmth, style and ultimately insightful take on romance and love.

Alas, Orth’s Frederick — while well-cast in age and appearance — was vocally less sure and theatrically not as poised as McNair’s Desiree, thus unconvincing as her romantic ideal. And Giebel’s Henrik was an overplayed adolescent clod, therefore not entirely credible when he emerges as Anne’s secretly desirous lover.

While “A Little Night Music” isn’t new to opera houses, stage director Ken Cazan’s pacing of the musical was inconsistent, arguably drawing out the first act too long; and Kimberly Mackin’s choreography sometimes left the actors — particularly the servants and other chorus members cast as onlookers — awkwardly positioned with nothing to do.

That said, the final number of the first act, “A Weekend in the Country,” was brilliantly staged and hilariously executed — the actors bounced in place, in unison, effecting travel over bumpy roads.

Finally, it was the spirited score in mostly three-quarter waltz time — skillfully conducted by Christopher Zemliauskas — that triumphed in this generally droll, pleasing musical farce on the irony, an eventual happy ending, of interrelationships.

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